John Boyega to Star in Pacific Rim 2

It’s definitely been a year of ups and downs for fans of the sequel to Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 film Pacific Rim, but right now things are looking great. Derek Connolly is writing it, Steven S. DeKnight is directing it, and now John Boyega is starring in it.

There’s no plot revealed for Pacific Rim 2, but Boyega is said to be portraying the son of the late Stacker Pentecost, Idris Elbas’s character from the first movie. But if Boyega is indeed Stacker’s son, the sequel should be taking place not long after the events of the first film.

“I am very proud and happy to welcome John into a fantastic sandbox. The Pacific Rim universe will be reinforced with him as a leading man as it continues to be a multicultural, multi-layered world. ‘The World saving the world’ was our goal and I couldn’t think of a better man for the job,” said del Toro.

Boyega is the first bit of new casting for the Pacific Rim sequel we’ve gotten so far, but hopefully we’ll also be seeing a few familiar faces as well: Charlie Day’s Newton Geiszler, Burn Gorman’s Hermann Gottlieb, Clifton Collins Jr.’s Tendo Choi, Charlie Hunnam’s Raleigh Becket. And of course Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori, who should be very close to Boyega’s character since they’re apparently siblings. But we’ll have to wait for more info about the movie to come out before we know the extent of their relationship.